


Final Destination

by KaSaPe



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Airplanes, Flirting, Fluff, Klance Secret Santa 2016, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Some Humor, almost choking on a gum, also lance is scared of flying, but it's not angsty promise, it's not christmas-y though, tagging that just in case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 10:05:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9067078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaSaPe/pseuds/KaSaPe
Summary: “Are you flirting with me?!” Keith was embarrassed to note that his voice cracked a little. But- it was just- that guy, Lance, was a stranger and he-
  Keith couldn’t deal with this.
  “Of course I am!” Lance exclaimed and looked at him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You just saved me from choking on a gum. And you’re distracting me from sitting in a scary airplane. You’re my hero and I’m pretty sure that there’s a rule that says that all rescued people have to flirt with their hero a little.”
When Keith had heard that he would be stuck sitting next to a stranger for the next 7 hours, he didn't exactly expect a fun time. Luckily, the universe has always had a knack for proving him wrong.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sailoraltea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailoraltea/gifts).



> Here, have an awkward Keith sitting next to a frightened Lance on a plane. Idk where this came from. Idk why and how it has gotten so long. Idk anything,,,,,,,,,

Keith was annoyed. At Shiro. Which was stupid because this definitely wasn’t Shiro’s fault.

He - both of them, actually - were sitting in an airplane towards Málaga, Spain, where they were supposed to meet Allura and Coran. It had been a long time since they had last seen their friends and they had decided to spend their holidays with them. Unfortunately Shiro’s job had kept him pretty busy these last few days so once he had managed to get enough days off to visit Europe, almost all the flights had been fully booked already. They were stuck with whatever open seats there were still left.

So here Keith was, at seat 36B next to an empty seat that would soon belong to a stranger, while Shiro was somewhere further in the front at seat 14B. He couldn’t even _see_ him! And they would be stuck like this for almost seven hours. Great.

Someone cleared their throat and Keith shook himself out of his thoughts. An attractive man with warm, brown skin and a crooked smile looked down at him. “Uh, would you mind? I’m 36A,” he said, raising his ticket as proof. Keith didn’t even look at it, he immediately got to his feet and stepped aside to allow the guy to squash himself past him and into his designated seat.

…the guy seemed friendly enough. Maybe Keith could ask him to change seats with Shiro?

Before Keith could open his mouth to ask the question, the guy grimaced. “Wow, this - the seats sure are small.” He shuffled his way too long legs around a little but didn’t seem to be able to get comfortable.

Now. Now was his chance. Shiro sat at 14B, he had an aisle seat, if the guy changed places with him he would have more space for his legs.

Keith’s mouth didn’t seem to agree with his brain though.

“Uh. We could change seats, if you want? You know, more… space?” Keith awkwardly gestured to the aisle, his body caught somewhere between sitting down and standing. Ugh. The guy blinked a few times, obviously not having expected Keith to offer anything.

“Ah, thanks but - yeah, no. Sorry. I think I’m gonna stay here.” The guy sent him another crooked smile and Keith shrugged.

“Your choice.”

“Yeah. Thanks. And I appreciate it but - um. I prefer it like this.”

Keith just nodded and allowed his body to fall into his seat. He wasn’t going to feel stupid about this. He _wasn’t_. He had made a perfectly reasonable offer and the guy could totally reject it if he wanted to keep his window seat. Maybe he was one of those people that really enjoyed the view from above, even if he had to compromise for it with a lack of space for his legs. They would arrive in Spain at night, the sight was bound to be beautiful.

In an attempt to distract himself, Keith reached out and pulled the laminated sheet on flight security from the bag in front of him. He was no stranger to flying, he had done so often enough with and between his different foster families, and the instructions looked exactly as he remembered them to. He lost interest quickly and decided to take a look at what other stuff there was in the bag.

There wasn’t anything special. A tiny flyer that, once he looked it over, appeared to include the menu for their plane food, the typical paper bag in case you started feeling sick, a blanket, cheap, black headphones, a sleeping mask and a magazine. Keith grabbed the magazine and started going through it.

Just when he was about to give up and settle for trying to sleep instead - the magazine was at least 70% ads only - the stewardess’ began their security announcement and demonstrations. Keith briefly checked over his seatbelt but didn’t really listen otherwise. He knew what they were saying. And even if he didn’t, there was still the laminated paper. The flight hadn’t even started yet and he was already getting bored.

Seven hours. Keith suppressed a groan and let his head fall back. He still had Allura’s book to read once they were in the air, he would just have to wait for a little longer.

Once the plane started rolling, Keith dug some gum out of his pockets. He had started chewing gum at the takeoff when he had still been a child and had had troubles with clearing his ears at the change in altitude. Nowadays he didn’t really need it anymore, but he liked the gum so he stuck with his habit.

Hesitating a little, Keith contemplated offering the stranger some of it. Would it be weird? Maybe. But the guy had seemed nice and Shiro always told him to be more sociable so he might as well give it a try.

Keith turned his head, already opening his mouth to address him when he noticed how the man held himself. The guy was sitting completely rigid, eyes focused on the window, his lips pressed together. He looked kind of pale and his hands were curled around his knees, harshly digging into his pants. All in all he looked... well, kind of terrible, for the lack of a better word.

“Hey, are you okay?” Keith blurted out before he could stop himself. The guy’s head immediately snapped around and wide blue eyes met his.

“What? Me? I’m - I’m fine, yeah, peachy, awesome, coolios. Amazing. The very best,” the guy replied. He let out a shaky laugh and Keith frowned.

“Are you sure?”

“Um, yes? Of course I am? Why wouldn’t I-”

Just then the plane started to accelerate and the guy squeezed his eyes together. He quickly ripped them open right after and whirled towards the window. Keith was honestly confused at his behavior, so he did the only thing he could think of: offer him the damn gum.

“Want some?”

The guy threw his head back around again, his entire body still as tense as a coil. His mouth opened and closed uselessly and Keith took it upon himself to take one out of the package and hold it right above his right hand that was still clutching his knee.  


“Take it.”

“‘kay?” the guy said in a small voice. He loosened his grip to take the gum and popped it into his mouth. His panicked expression didn’t lessen one bit but he started chewing furiously. Keith wasn’t sure what to make of it - was the guy having a panic attack? He didn’t look that bad yet. Then again, Keith didn’t know much about panic attacks, this could very well be one. The guy had seemed perfectly fine when he had sat down earlier but as soon as the plane had started moving in earnest - was he afraid of flying?

“Tastes good?” Keith asked a little awkwardly when he couldn’t think of anything comforting to say. The guy grimaced and forced a pained smile.

“I suppose? I don’t- I mean- I can’t really- what the fuck, this is all Hunk’s fault.” A little tension seemed to drain out of him at that. Keith just silently chewed his own gum and kept staring. The guy looked ready to say something else, he even opened his mouth and everything, but then started bouncing his leg instead and turned towards the window again. He still didn’t look even remotely fine.

Great, it was just Keith’s luck to be stuck in an airplane next to a guy that was afraid of flying. For the next _seven hours_.

“If you’re gonna throw up, there are some paper bags in there,” Keith said helpfully. He pointed at the bag in front of the guy’s legs, its contents were bound to be the same as his. The man’s head immediately whipped towards him again and Keith idly wondered how his neck survived all those harsh turns in quick succession.

“I’m not gonna _throw up._ I might not have a good time here but I’m not a child anymore. I’m perfectly fine, thanks.”

Keith couldn’t help the way his eyebrows rose at the guy’s tone. “Alright. Okay. Whatever. I was just trying to help.”

“Yeah, well, maybe try not to be so condescending next time,” the guy snapped back. Keith felt his face twisting into a soft glare.

“Excuse me?! I was trying to help, I wasn’t being condescending!”

“Oh, suuure you were not. It’s not like you were assuming that I was a wimp that was gonna throw up from simply being in an airplane.”

Keith could feel how his expression got more incredulous the more the guy talked. What happened to the friendly man from earlier? What was the guy even saying?! That - Keith hadn’t done anything wrong! Or had he? No, no he really hadn’t.

“I never even said that! You - you just weren’t looking so well, so I thought pointing the bag out would be a nice thing to do. I didn't assume anything.” And he really hadn't, at least not out loud. Keith gritted his teeth, stopping himself from adding an _‘idiot’_ at the end. Great. Awesome. Of course. This was the guy he would be stuck sitting next to for seven hours now. Amazing.

“I wasn’t looking so well?! Well, you aren’t looking that fine either, mister!”

“What the fu- you know what? No. I’m not doing this. You can throw up in your lap for all I care,” Keith bit out and resolutely turned away from the guy. The woman in seat 36C was watching them warily but averted her eyes when Keith’s met hers.

“I am not going to throw up! How often do I have to say this?! Screw you, man.”  


Keith’s eye twitched but he refrained from saying anything else. Fuck that guy, honestly. As soon as they were flying steadily, Keith would get up and walk over to Shiro. Maybe the person in seat 14A would be willing to change seats with Keith. He couldn’t stay here for the entirety of seven hours, the other guy would drive him insane.

There was a sudden drop in altitude and Keith got a funny feeling in his stomach before the plane kept rising. It was nothing unusual, really, but the guy next to him inhaled sharply and suddenly started coughing. Violently.

And then didn’t stop.

A little disturbed, Keith turned around to look at him. The man was thumping his own chest, eyes watering as he just kept coughing. A bad feeling seeped into his bones.

“Uh…” Keith began, unsure of how to continue. The guy sounded as if he was dying, he couldn’t in good consciousness just leave him like that. But what could he do?

“Gum,” the guy said in a choked voice. Something clicked in Keith’s brain and his body acted without giving himself time to process the panic he was feeling: His left arm started beating at the guy’s back, his right one forcing his head down. If he gum was stuck in his throat they had to get it out before he choked on it.

Fuck. What would he do if the gum didn't dislodge itself? Keith might not have been overly fond of the guy but he didn't want him to _die_. Forcing the man's head even further down, Keith kept vigorously thumping his back. He couldn't let that happen.

There was a little more coughing and hacking sounds but then the guy finally spit the gum onto his shoe. He kept coughing weakly and Keith let go of him, giving both of them time and space to come back to their senses. Falling back into his seat, Keith struggled to figure out what he should to next.

Should he say something? He couldn’t think of anything to say. In fact, he couldn’t really think of anything at all. Keith’s eyes were wide and he stared at the mini computer in the chair in front of him before lowering his gaze to look at his lap.

The asshole next to him had almost choked on a gum. _His_ gum. The guy had almost _choked_. He could have _died_. On the plane in a seat directly next to him.

Keith hadn’t even realized how much adrenaline he had felt until he saw his hands shaking. Jesus. The flight had barely even started and he had already found an enemy and saved his life in quick succession. Today really wasn’t his day.

Taking a deep breath, Keith took a look around. Everyone else was staring at them, open concern written over their faces. Keith grimaced a little and turned back towards the guy who still had his head hanging between his legs, breathing unevenly. Right, he should make sure that he was okay.

“Are you-”

“I’m fine,” the guy croaked out. He didn’t really sound fine but before Keith could call him out on that, a stewardess was suddenly standing next to him.

“Is everything okay with you, sir?” she asked politely. Keith noted how she effortlessly managed to balance on her high heels despite the plane being still in the take-off phase but couldn’t really find it in him to feel impressed. He was still kind of in shock from what had just happened. Clearing his throat, he went to speak to her.

“We-”

“I’m fine,” the guy repeated. Keith turned around to scowl at him but couldn’t force himself do it when he was met by a weak half-smile. The guy looked absolutely horrible. “Just fine, really. I’m perfectly okay.”

Keith turned his head to look at the unconvinced stewardess. “Actually, could we have some water, please?”

“Right away,” she said. Keith nodded and looked at the man next to him again. His wave of adrenaline had finally somewhat receded but the guy’s hands were still trembling.

There was a little silence, then the man let out a pathetic laugh and let his forehead fall against the seat in front of him, just barely missing his computer screen. “Oh man. This is the worst. The literal worst. Worst day of my life. I can’t believe this.”

Unsure of how to react, Keith just hummed in reply. The stewardess came back and handed him a plastic cup of water which almost spilled over when the plane dropped again. Keith saw the guy tense even more and decided to only give him the cup once they had reached a fixed height, he didn't want to risk him choking on the water as well. His throat had to be in enough pain as it was already.

“Anything else I can do for you?”

“No, everything's  fine now. Thanks,” the guy spoke from behind Keith. His hands reached out for the water but Keith refused to hand it over. Not yet anyway. Keith smiled and thanked the stewardess as well, watching her walk the aisle back down again.

“Wait, why did you get that if you aren't-”

“Soon. The plane’s still unsteady,” Keith cut him off. The guy didn’t exactly seem happy with that but didn’t protest anymore. Turning the cup in his hands, Keith waited in silence until their seatbelt signal turned off. Then he sighed and held the out water.

“Here you go.”

“Um. Thanks,” the guy answered. Keith watched with furrowed brows as he took the cup, obviously struggling not to spill anything with his still trembling fingers. He refrained from commenting on it though, he didn’t want the other guy to blow up at him again.

After a moment of hesitation, the man drank the water. All at once. If he had been with anyone else, Keith might have pointed out that sipping the water would have been better for his throat. But he wasn’t with anyone else and no, he still didn’t want to get into another argument, so he kept quiet and turned to observe the tiny, digital plane on the mini computer in front of him instead.

There was a little more silence, then the guy shuffled in his seat. Keith glanced over and found him squinting down at the floor between his legs. What was he- no, it didn’t matter. Whatever the guy was doing wasn’t his problem. It didn’t concern him at all. He grabbed for his small bagpack that he had stored beneath the seat in front of him and searched for Allura’s book.

“Hey.”

Keith stopped his movements and looked over at the guy. He still looked kind of pale and freaked out but seemed to feel much better than before.

“Do you… um, have a tissue or something? The gum landed on my shoe. I don’t really want to - y’know,” he grimaced and wiggled his fingers around. Keith could feel his brows furrow a little.

“I think I have some, actually.” He pulled the book out and dug a little deeper, finding the packet of tissues that Shiro had thrown into the bag this morning at the last second. “Ah. Here you go.”

“Awesome! Thanks!” The guy sent him a brilliant smile before he took the tissue and ducked down to peel the evil gum off his shoe. Keith was tempted to ask him how he was feeling but suppressed the urge and put his backpack away instead. As far as he knew, the guy might take offence to that and would label it as ‘condescending’ again. Was he being petty for still being hung up on that? Maybe, but he didn't really care. He started reading the book where he had left off, only glancing to the side when he heard the guy opening a paper bag to throw the tissue with the gum away. It was the bag that Keith had referred to earlier when he had tried be helpful.

Whatever. It didn’t matter. The guy was fine now and his shoe was clean, Keith’s job was done. That was all there was to it, he didn't have to waste his thoughts on him.

“Uh… hey there,” the guy spoke up again. Keith suppressed a sigh and lowered his book.

“What?”

“I just-” the guy sheepishly rubbed his neck, “-I wanted to say thanks. For just now. And sorry for earlier. I was kind of being an ass.”

Surprised, Keith couldn’t help blinking stupidly. “Well, yeah. You kind of were.”

The guy narrowed his eyes at him.

“Yeah. So. Sorry for that. I… um. One of my friends is studying to be a mechanical engineer actually and he had to write a paper on planes just last week. That’s why he researched all the things that could make an airplane malfunction and he told me about everything in excruciating detail. Like. I love him? But wow, dick move, Hunk. It’s horrifying sitting here with all that information swirling around in my brain. He knew that I’ve never had much fun being on a plane before either. Wait until I tell him about this.”

“Oh. That’s… shitty,” Keith offered. Was the guy trying to make conversation or something?

“It is. But he’s usually a cool dude, I swear. We’re homies, best buds for life. I guess he just read all that stuff and wanted me to be safe. He’s also prone to freaking out a little, so of course he had to tell me how worried he was about me getting onto a load of metal in the sky. Not that there are many other options to get from here to Spain.”  


For a moment Keith just stared quizzically at him. “Not really. Unless you’re willing to spend weeks on a ship. And I doubt that a load of metal in the water is much more secure than a load of metal in the sky,” he responded then.

The guy laughed. Keith could feel his own lips twitching in response, his laughter was kind of infectious. Maybe, just _maybe_ , he wasn’t so bad after all.

“Right. And, as attractive as a load of metal in the water might seem right now, I’d rather get to my brothers wedding on time,” he grinned. So they were making conversation. That was okay, Keith supposed. At least he could fill some of the seven boring hours that awaited him like this.

“You’re going to your brother’s wedding?” Keith snuck a glance at his book and committed the page number to memory before closing it. He knew that Allura hated it when he folded the corners.

“Yup. He’s four years older than me and he’s been dating this girl since, like, forever. They’ve been engaged since March this year. I’m Lance, by the way,” the guy said and extended a hand. Keith shook it a little awkwardly, their seats not giving them enough space to face each other properly.

“Keith. I’m going to Spain to meet up with some friends from the UK. We haven’t seen each other in a while and they wanted to drag us ‘somewhere sunny’.”

“Us?” Lance asked curiously and bowed forward, trying to find the person Keith was travelling with. Keith sighed.

“Yeah, me and my friend from college. He’s sitting somewhere over there.” Keith vaguely waved towards the front. “14B. His boss was kinda late with granting him time off work so we had to take whatever seats were still empty.”

“Aw man. Sucks to have an employer like that.” Lance sounded genuinely sorry and Keith couldn’t help but agree. His own manager was a strict but generally kind man who was willing to let him change shifts during exam weeks.

“Yep.”

There was a momentary beat of silence, then Lance spoke up again. “Okay, so, what are we going to do for seven hours? I can already feel my ass dying.”

“I don’t kno- what?”

“My ass. Dying? You know? Because we’ll be stuck in the same position for so long?” Keith blinked, trying to formulate a response when Lance kept talking. “It’s probably going to look like a square once we reach Europe. Think I could pull off a square ass? A shame, my ass always looked damn fine before.”

And then. Then he shot him a wink. An honest to god _wink_.

Keith’s brain shut down.

“I don’t really think you have to worry about that,” he said in a monotone voice.

“What? So you think I could pull it off?”

Keith spluttered. “No- I mean- there is no way that- what the fuck, Lance!” Lance started laughing and Keith could feel his cheeks heating up a little. How could this guy say stuff like that? They barely even knew each other!

“Relax, I’m just messing with you,” Lance grinned. Keith slowly breathed in and tried to get his facial expression back under control.

“I know I’ll always look good, no matter whether my ass is square or not.”

_“Lance!”_

More laughter followed as Keith groaned and buried his face in his hands. What was wrong with this guy? Maybe he should really try to change seats with whoever was in seat 14A.

“Yes, that is my name. What is it, darling?” Keith whipped his head around to stare at Lance. Lance shot him another wink and blew him a kiss.

That was-

“Are you _flirting_ with me?!” Keith was embarrassed to note that his voice cracked a little. But- it was just- that guy, Lance, was a stranger and he-

Keith couldn’t deal with this.

“Of course I am!” Lance exclaimed and looked at him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You just saved me from choking on a gum. And you’re distracting me from sitting in a scary airplane. You’re my hero and I’m pretty sure that there’s a rule that says that all rescued people have to flirt with their hero a little.”

“No. No, there really isn’t,” Keith mumbled.

“Well, now there is. Sorry, I don’t make the rules!”

Keith frowned. “But you just said-”

“Hey now, don’t stress out over it. It’s just to pass some time, okay?” Keith was tempted to shut him down but Lance’s grin was so easy and relaxed that Keith got the impression that it was normal for him to act like this. And yeah, Keith might have thought that the flirting was weird - but Lance had just admitted that he was scared of airplanes, so who was he to deny him a little normalcy?

Besides, it wasn’t as if he was uncomfortable, per se. Being flirted with was weird and unexpected but not… well, it wasn’t bad. At least not if it came from someone that was looking as good as Lance did.

No. He shouldn’t start thinking like this. Lance had just said that it was a joke to pass time. Nothing else.

Keith sighed and made a dismissive hand motion. “Whatever. I don’t care.”

“Harsh. Get ready to be swept off your feet then. I will make your heart soar higher than our plane.” A glance to the side told Keith that Lance was smirking now. “Sweetheart.”

Okay, nope. That was his limit.

“ _Stop._ For the love of god, stop it.”

Lance laughed loudly and Keith couldn't help but notice that his smile took up his whole face, almost forcing him to close his eyes. They crinkled at the corners and it was… cute.

Oh no.

Oh _fuck_ no. Keith did not just think that the annoying, flirty stranger in the seat next to him was cute. Good looking, maybe. But definitely not cute.

“Fine, fine, I’ll stop for now. Because it's you.” Lance winked and Keith swore he almost choked on his gum. Deciding that he didn't want to risk making a scene like his seating partner did earlier, he wordlessly searched for a tissue and spat it out. This was not how he had envisioned today going.

“Back to the original question at hand, what are we going to do for seven hours?” Lance asked, undeterred by Keith’s behavior. Thankful for the change in topics, Keith tapped against the computer screen embedded into the seat in front of him.

“Play games. Watch movies. Listen to music.” He lifted his book. “Read.”

Lance pouted and crossed his arms. “And here I was thinking we were getting along.”

“…but we _are_ getting along,” Keith said, frowning a little. They were getting along, right? Kind of? Lance just sighed dramatically and sunk back into his seat rest.

“Apparently not enough that you want to keep talking to me.”

Keith momentarily pressed his lips together, then crossed his own arms. He refused to feel bad over this. He didn’t even know Lance, he had no business guilt tripping him over not being social enough.

“I was just answering your question. I thought you were looking for stuff to do.” He was still frowning at the seat in front of him, so the poke against his arm took him by surprise. Keith turned his head to look at Lance and was startled by the amused expression he was met with.

“That was a joke. Just making that clear.” Keith blinked a few times and loosened his defensive posture a bit. But before he could answer him, Lance huffed out a laugh. “You’re a strange guy, mister Keith.”

“I am strange?! You’re the guy that’s making conversation with a stranger!”

“Yep. Because I’m friendly and outgoing. Nothing strange about that,” Lance answered, grinning. Keith didn’t reply this time, he just aggressively put his book inside the bag in front of him and reached for the black, sub-par headphones. He was lucky that their flight was long enough for them to get a computer, that way he would have an easier time tuning Lance out. Just when he had figured out where he was supposed to plug the headphones into - his right armrest, apparently - Lance piped up again.

“Wait, what are you doing? Are you seriously going to ignore me?”

“I’m going to watch a movie,” Keith answered tersely. He pushed his finger on the ‘home’ and then the ‘movie’ button on the screen and randomly selected the first one he came across.

“Ouch. Alright then, I guess I’ll see what I can busy myself with in the meantime.” Lance began tapping at his screen and Keith tried to focus on his movie. Before he could get into it though, Lance suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

“What?”

“You said games! Where-”

“Home screen. Category ‘entertainment’. ‘Games’,” Keith sighed. Lance kept eerily still for a few moments, then insistingly shook his shoulder.

“Where is the home screen? I’ve been looking at this airplane forever now and still can't find it.”

Keith suppressed a groan and reached over into Lance’s space, tapping on his screen until he reached the games section. He was acutely aware of the warm breath against his neck and the strong hand that still rested on his shoulder but did his best to shove the sensations aside. They didn’t matter anyway. And if Lance smelled really good, kind of like the sea somehow, that didn’t matter either. He didn’t stink and that should really be all that was of interest.

 

* * *

 

Pretty much the moment Keith’s film ended, he could hear the telltale noise of someone coming down the aisles with a food cart. He suppressed a sigh and tried not to let the disgusting smell get to him. The food might be better than what it smelled like, he shouldn’t give up on it before having tried it.

That’s what Shiro would say at least.

Keith put his headphones down and saw how Lance immediately perked up at that. “Got bored already?”

“Food is coming,” Keith answered. Also, the film had been pretty bad. He had zoned out most of the time, he just remembered lots of screaming and guns. Nothing of interest.

“Really? What do you think it will be?”

“Chicken or pasta,” Keith replied without hesitation. He reached into the bag where he remembered the flyer with the menu to be and pulled it out. Even without having read through it he knew what the stewardess would ask him. It was always chicken or pasta.

“How would you know?” Lance asked curiously. Keith shrugged and held the flyer out for him. Lance took it and looked it over, eyebrows pulling together a little.

“That’s…”

“Our menu.”

“Huh.” Keith studied Lance’s expression and was rewarded with a smile. “Doesn’t sound too bad actually.”

For the first time it was Keith who let out a laugh. Lance cocked his head to the side, still grinning, even if he had one eyebrow raised now. “What?”

“Dude. Food in planes _never_ tastes good.”

Lance blinked a few times, then he frowned. “Have you ever actually been on a plane before? I like it.”

Keith stared. “You _like_  it?!”

“Well, yeah,” Lance handed him the flyer back and shrugged. “Though the longest I’ve flown so far were three hours so I usually just got snacks. They were fine though.”

Ah, that explained it. Keith put the flyer back and stretched his arms a little. After they had had their food he would have to walk around for a while, he could feel himself growing stiff already.

“The meals are not like the snacks, believe me,” Keith said. Lance pursed his lips and seemed to think of an answer when the same stewardess as earlier pulled up behind them.

“Chicken or pasta?”

Keith would go with pasta. He always went with pasta. Lance twisted his body and craned his head to get a look at what their meals would look like. The stewardess was still two rows behind, there was no way that Lance could get a clear-

Lance got up and almost climbed over Keith to get a better look. Irritated, Keith pushed him back into his seat and let his table down.

“Hey! But I wanted to-”

“You were climbing all over me and acting like a child. Sit down and wait for your food.”

“Alright, fine, Mr. stick-up-my-ass, I’ll sit down and patiently wait for my food. Here, I’ll even fasten my seatbelt,” Lance drawled as he made a point of clicking his seatbelt into place. Keith tightened his jaw and refused to react to this obvious taunting.

“Chicken or pasta?”

“Pasta,” Keith replied immediately, thankful for the distraction. He accepted the tray that was handed to him and put it down onto his little table.

“Chicken!” Lance exclaimed loudly. Keith could feel Lance’s leg knocking against his and shot him a glare. Lance seemed completely unfazed, he smirked at him and raised an eyebrow in challenge. Oh whatever, if Lance wanted to risk eating meat in an airplane just to oppose him then he could go right ahead.

They both ordered something to drink - apple juice for Lance and water for Keith - and Keith started peeling the foil off of his food. The tortellini didn’t even look half bad this time.

Next to him, Lance made a happy noise. “Look! Rice and vegetables and chicken! This looks amazing.” Keith glanced over and shrugged, he knew that just because something _looked_ good it didn’t have to _taste_ good too.

“And what else do we have here?” Lance lifted one of the two other boxes and grinned amusedly. “Cheese. Is that an olive?”

“Yeah. And that’s…” Keith let his sentence trail off, lifting his second box and squinting at it. “Pudding?”

“It’s green,” Lance pointed out.

“…mint pudding?”

“Maybe.”

There was a beat of silence where both of them were just looking at the pudding, unsure whether they should touch it. Keith shook it a little and watched it wobble around. Yeah, definitely pudding. Green though?

“I dare you to try it,” Lance suddenly spoke. Keith whipped his head around to frown at him.

“Why don’t _you_ try it?”

“What? Are you scared?”

“I’m not scared! It’s just a pudding!” Keith bristled. Right. Just food.

Lance smirked. “Then what’s stopping you?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Keith gritted out. Making a point of opening the small box and digging his spoon into it, he frowned. Why was he doing this? Why did he go along with Lance’s whims? Why had he allowed him to talk him into this?

“Oh? Is that hesitation I sense? Not gonna do it after all?”

“Fuck off!” Keith didn’t give himself any more time to think and took a large spoonful of the eerie green pudding. He wasn’t quite sure what he had expected, some kind of vegetable pudding maybe, but he was relieved to be proven wrong. The taste was undefinable but it wasn’t exactly bad.

“…so how is it?” Lance asked anxiously. Keith kept his face carefully blank and shrugged.

“If you’re so curious, why don’t you try it yourself?”

“What? No, no, no, no, you already tried it, it’s your duty to tell me about-” Keith ignored him and started eating his real food instead. He didn’t want the tortellini to get cold. To his surprise they weren’t bad either, actually. If he had known that the food would be passable this time, he wouldn’t have dragged Shiro to the Subway’s near the airport just a few hours before.

“Okay, _fine_ , I get it. I’ll try it myself then.” Keith suppressed a smirk as he watched Lance carefully scoop up the tiniest bit of pudding that could possibly fit onto his spoon. Then he squeezed his eyes shut and shoved it into his mouth. A few moments later, Lance blinked in surprise and pulled the spoon back out again.

“Oh. Hey, this isn’t even half bad! Not sure what it is supposed to taste like but I like it.”

“Yeah,” Keith agreed easily.

“Alright, so that’s for dessert! What about the bread, did you try the bread?”

Keith shrugged. “The bread always tastes the same. A little dry but okay. You’ve opened your chicken though, you should eat it before it gets cold.”

“Aww, are you worried about me? Why, thank you, honey,” Lance chirped in a happy tone. Keith was just glad that he didn’t have anything in his mouth right now or he definitely would have choked on it.

“You’re still doing that?!”

“I’ll keep doing that until I have found something more entertaining to do. Unfortunately I don’t see that happen anytime soon, your reactions are a-do-ra-ble,” Lance grinned. Keith forced himself to exhale slowly before taking a sip of his water. This was going to be a long flight.

“Just eat your chicken.”

For once Lance complied and opened the plastic wrap around his cutlery a little further to take out his knife and fork. Keith shook his head almost imperceptibly and got back to his own food. He never should have offered Lance some of his gum, now Lance apparently assumed that he wanted to be friends or something.

Not that he would _mind_ being friends. It was just- well. Keith didn’t know how to go about it. Or how to handle Lance’s playful flirting.

“Ew! Holy shit, _ew_ , what the _fuck_ , this thing is disgusting!” Lance suddenly exclaimed. Keith huffed out a laugh and looked over at him, amused to see that Lance was pulling a face at his chicken while shoving a large spoonful of pudding into his mouth.

“It is?”

“Yeah! Wow, what kind of sauce is this?! Like, the meat is fine, but the sauce - do you have enough tissues to soak it all up?”

Keith laughed openly and leaned back into his seat. “That’s not gonna work. Just eat your rice and vegetables and then you still have your bread.”

“I feel betrayed,” Lance told him. He pouted at his food but listened to Keith’s advice and started eating his rice and vegetables instead.

“Good?” Keith asked, one eyebrow raised in entertainment. Lance shot him an accusing look.

“You knew it would taste shitty!”

“Hey, I warned you. Plane food always tastes disgusting.” He shrugged and ate another one of his tortellini. That’s why he always went with pasta. From his experience it was harder to fuck up pasta sauce than meat sauce.

“You seem pretty fine with yours though,” Lance grumbled as he took another mouthful of rice. Then he grimaced. “This tastes just bland.”

“Food is food,” Keith reminded him. Lance kept sulking though, poking unhappily at his vegetables but eating them all.

Keith didn’t know why, but he felt guilty. It was stupid, it wasn’t as if he could have known that the pasta would be decent this time. He had just made his wager and hoped for the best.

Sighing, Keith pushed his tray a little away from him. He saw Lance momentarily glancing over before he went back to buttering his bread.

“I’m not hungry anymore.” That got Lance’s attention and he pushed the rest of his tortellini over to him. “Take them.”

For a moment Lance seemed not to know what to do with himself. Then he grinned broadly. “Seriously?!”

“I dragged Shiro to a Subway’s before we entered the airport. I came prepared,” Keith said. Lance made a happy noise and punched him in the shoulder.

“Dude! You’re my hero! Did I tell you this already?”

“I seem to recall something like that, yeah.” Keith helplessly allowed the lopsided smile to take over his face. Lance was just - a happy and bright person and he couldn’t not feel happy around him too. It was weird, honestly.

“Well, no harm in saying it again. You’re my hero and I owe you my life. Twice now,” Lance said solemnly as he reached out for his food. He yelped when his hands came in contact with the heated aluminium but Keith didn’t even have time to roll his eyes before he pulled his hands into his sleeves and quickly pulled the tortellini onto his tray. There he went again doing cute stuff.

Shit. Keith needed to stop thinking this. He and Lance were not friends. And even if they were friends, that was not an appropriate thought to have.

“How are you gonna pay me back?”

“I dunno,” Lance answered as he stabbed at his food. “I’ll think of something though. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”

_Jesus_. Keith couldn’t do this. And Lance had said it so casually, Keith doubted that he had even noticed what had just come out of his mouth.

They finished their meal in playful back and forth banter and Keith didn’t even realize how much he smiled until the stewardess came to get their trays and he didn’t have to force his expression to be friendly.

 

* * *

 

“Keith! Holy shit, Keith!”

Lance was slapping his arm repeatedly and Keith looked up from his book in irritation. He had been planning on finishing it on the plane so that he could give it back to Allura as soon as possible.

“What?”

“Did you know that these games have a double player mode? Play against me, Keith!”

“Do you even know how to set the double player mode up?” Keith asked in an annoyed tone. He still set the book aside though, ready to indulge Lance for a bit. He could read it later still... Lance wasn't going to be around for much longer.

“No clue. I assumed that you knew?”

“No idea,” Keith answered honestly. He might have known a lot about planes but not _that_ much. Besides it wasn't as if he had never had someone to play with in double player mode before - if the planes had even offered it back then during his childhood. “What did you want to play?”

“Uh. I dunno. Connect four?” Lance suggested. Keith shot him a look.

“Really? Out of all the games here you picked connect four?”

“Hey! It's fun! Have you ever played it against the plane before? Because this thing is _insanely_ good at it and I want to win for once,” Lance said. Crossing his arms, Keith raised a challenging eyebrow.

“Who said that you were going to win against me?”

Lance smirked and met his challenge head on. “Who said I wasn’t? I’ll let you know that I’m pretty amazing at connect four.”

“Which is why you lose against the plane every single time,” Keith deadpanned. Lance let out an offended gasp, then leaned into his personal space to access his screen.

“That's not fair! I'm telling you, the plane makes it _impossible_ to win! It's - it's a machine and it's evil. Here, I’ll show you, you go play it!”  


Keith knew he should shove Lance away but he couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. He still smelled nice and fresh which was a feat considering they had been on the plane for a few hours already. He was also radiating a nice heat that countered the coolness from the air conditioners - it was all Keith could do to not drag him closer and use him as a blanket.

“There. Now play,” Lance said and pointed at his screen. Keith shook himself out of his stupor and focused on the game. There had been no level selection but Keith was pretty sure that the computers got reset every time a new flight started so he should be fine.

And he was. It didn’t even take him five minutes to beat the plane and he shot Lance a triumphant look. “You were saying?”

“Wait- no- that's not- this wasn't- no, no, no, no, no! That’s not fair!” Lance cried out. He pulled at Keith’s arm, almost dragging him over their shared armrest into his lap to show him his own screen. “The plane went easy on you. Look at what I’ve had to deal with for all this time!”

The armrest dug uncomfortably into Keith’s side but he didn’t care. He kept leaning against Lance in the same way Lance had leaned against him even once the grip on his arm eased up. Lance didn’t complain so this was fine, right?

Finally the game started. Lance placed his first coin and Keith witnessed how the computer set out to absolutely destroy him. It was admittedly nothing like the game Keith had just played on his screen.

“Not fair! What the fuck! Shit, I’ve already lost-”

“What? No, you haven’t. Just put it here-”

“Doesn’t matter. Look at that. The plane trapped me, if I put it here it will just put its coin over there and I’ll be finished either way.”

Keith blinked slowly, then huffed. “Fuck.”

“Exactly.” Lance placed his coin where Keith had wanted him to and they watched the ‘Game Over’ flicker over Lance’s screen immediately after. Now that Keith had no excuse to keep leaning against Lance, he sat back properly and contemplated what he had just seen.

“It’s just really not fair,” Lance grumbled. “Why was your game so easy?”

“The question is - why was your game so hard? There is no way a child could play that.”

Lance agitatedly threw his arms out and Keith had to dodge to the side to not get accidentally smacked in the face. He shot him a glare but Lance didn’t even seem to notice what he had done. “I know, right?! It’s just not fair! So now you gotta play against me, I’ve had enough of this. It’s depressing to lose all the time.”

“Again, don’t just assume that you’re going to win against me,” Keith sighed. Lance’s arms finally fell down again and he sent him a smirk.

“I’m not assuming. You forget that I have already gotten the opportunity to analyze your skill set. You don’t stand a chance against me.”

“Oh yeah?”  


“Yeah!”

“We’ll see. Get ready,” Keith said as he selected double player mode. Apparently he had to enter a seat number, so he quickly typed in 36A and got rewarded by a happy squeal from Lance.

“Yes! Got it! Now _you_ get ready to get obliterated, mullet-man.”

A grin tugged at Keith’s lips. “What happened to darling and sweetheart? Wasn’t I supposed to be your hero?”

“Pfft, semantics,” Lance dismissed with a wave of his hand. “We’re rivals now. I won’t go easy on you.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Keith replied. And then the game started.

Keith lost after three minutes.

Gaping at his screen, he kept silent for a few moments while Lance cheered. “Finally! Take that, you stupid airplane, I knew I was the best at this!”

“How did you do that?! There’s no way you’re _that_ good!” Keith exclaimed. Lance laughed triumphantly and rested his elbow on his shoulder.

“I told you. I’m a genius. I’m amazing, the undefeated champion.”

“Apart from the plane,” Keith pointed out. Lance spluttered and removed his arm but before he could start up an argument, Keith demanded a rematch.

And lost _again_.

“No way!”  


“Yes way! I keep telling you, I’m the best at this! Just believe me already!”

“There has to be some kind of- rematch. Come on, let’s do it again.”

After Keith lost for the third time in quick succession, he had to accept his defeat. “Just how are you so good at this?” He needed to know. Lance carded a hand through his hair and tried to make a pose in his seat.

“Call it natural talent-”

_“Lance!”_

Before Lance could answer, there was a kick against Keith’s back. He jumped a little and turned around to peer through the small slot between his and Lance’s seat. “Um-”

“Could you be a little quieter, please?” The question was worded politely but the tone was anything but. Lance and Keith exchanged a wince and nodded at each other.

“Yeah, of course, sorry. Didn’t mean to disturb you,” Lance said. The person behind them didn’t say anything so they assumed they were in the clear. Sighing, Keith leaned back into his chair. He usually wasn’t one to get all loud and worked up over children’s games.

“For real though, how did you get so good at connect four?” Keith asked Lance in a significantly lower volume. Lance shrugged and leaned back as well.

“My family. We used to have, like, a game night every Saturday back when I still lived with them. We played all kinds of games and connect four just so happens to be a traditional part of the game nights.”

“That... sounds nice,” Keith offered. He had never had a game night in any of the foster families he had been with. Was that a normal thing or was that just a Lance thing?

“It was. I kind of miss them sometimes but Hunk is usually up to play card games with me whenever homesickness hits.” Lance got a wistful expression on his face and Keith wasn't sure how to react to it. So he just nodded, smiled a little awkwardly and went back to reading his book.

 

* * *

 

“Oh my god, I can’t do this anymore,” Lance complained. Keith shot him an unimpressed look, he had been complaining and shifting around in his seat for half an hour now. “Okay, that’s it, I’m going to the toilet.”

“Do you even have to go?” Keith asked but momentarily closed his book. He kicked his bag further under the seat in front of him so that Lance would have enough space to squeeze himself out of their seats.

“Not really. But that way I can at least move a little,” he answered as he brushed past Keith. Keith pressed himself as close to his seat as possible. Maybe, he realized, maybe it would have been smarter to get up to let Lance out. As it was, their legs knocked against each other and he could feel Lance's comforting heat once again, making him wish that he knew him well enough to causally touch him more often.

Once Lance stood straight, he moaned happily and stretched his back. “Oh shit, this feels good. Not sure I’ll ever sit back down again.” Keith just shook his head fondly, a small smile playing at his lips. Lance was always so overdramatic.

“How big do you think is this plane? How long will it take me to reach the end?” he asked Keith. Keith cocked his head to the side and shrugged.

“Not sure. It looked big from outside?”

“It did. I’ll find out what the back looks like,” Lance grinned. Then he suddenly twisted his torso and looked down. “Maybe my ass will get back into its usual shape. I know that we agreed earlier that I could totally pull of a square ass but I think I still prefer it to be nice and round.”

Keith couldn’t help it - his eyes immediately went down to Lance’s ass. It didn’t look square in the slightest but Lance was right, it _was_ a nice ass.

Oh _god_.

Keith could feel his cheeks heating up and snapped his eyes back to Lance’s face. Lance was watching him, a confident smirk and a smug eyebrow in place. He had totally seen him checking him out. Keith wanted to die.

“You - _leave!”_

Lance laughed and shot him a wink. “I knew there was something between us.”  


_“Just leave!”_ This time Keith threw his arms into his direction to make his point, hoping that his face wasn’t as red as it felt. He was a good man, mostly. He didn’t deserve this.

Thankfully, Lance complied for once and left wherever he wanted to go. Keith groaned and immediately dropped his face into his hands, rubbing over it multiple times. It didn’t matter. None of it mattered. Lance was a stranger he had met on the plane and in a few hours he would never see him again.

The thought made him sad, somehow. What even. He just wanted to go back to the start where he had thought that Lance was annoying and weird.

After he had given himself some time to calm down, Keith opened his book again. His mind tried to distract him from the words on the page but he didn’t let it happen. He stubbornly read the same few phrases over and over, focusing so much on them that he didn’t even notice Lance coming back until something tapped against his shoulder.

“Huh?”

“You can get free hot chocolate at the end of the plane!” Lance said, beaming. He held up two paper cups of what Keith assumed to be hot chocolate and Keith could only stare. Slowly, Lance’s expression grew more uncomfortable.

“Uh, I just - if you don’t like it I can drink both-”

“No! No, I- it’s fine, I like hot chocolate. It’s cool.” This time Keith got up to let Lance return to his seat, refusing to let their bodies make any accidental contact. The embarrassment from just now was still fresh on his mind and he really didn't want to make things awkward between them. There was still at least half of the flight left and it would already be hard enough to survive as it was.

Lance hummed a mindless tune as he got back into his seat, carefully holding the cups by their rim. Keith didn’t question it, the cups were probably hot to the touch. Once he sat down too, Lance handed him one of them.

“Enjoy. It tastes pretty damn good, even if I burned my tongue,” Lance grinned. Keith tentatively grinned back, clutching the cup tightly between his hands despite it being way too hot for that.

Lance had just gotten him a drink.

They weren’t on a date. They weren’t even friends. And sure, he hadn't had to pay for it, but fact was that Lance had still been nice enough to think of him and get him a cup of hot chocolate. And he constantly flirted with him-

No. He needed to stop thinking like that.

“…I know I just said that it’s hot but you can try it, you know. It’s good, trust me.” Keith looked down at the dark liquid, still amazed at how kind Lance was. It was kindness, nothing more. Then he turned his head and sent Lance a bright smile.

“Right. Thanks. If I die from this though you’ll be held accountable and Shiro _will_ kill you.”

“Your lack of trust in me wounds me. Why would I want to kill you after you saved my life twice already?” Lance dramatically clutched one hand over his heart and squeezed his eyes together as if he was in pain. Keith raised an unimpressed eyebrow and lowered his table to set his cup down. At the lack of a response from him, Lance cracked his eyes back open.

“Hello? I’m wounded? Pay attention to me?”

“Yes. Hello, Lance,” Keith answered drily. He used the white plastic stick in the cup to swirl the chocolate around, hoping to cool it off a little.

“Keith! You’re being rude! And that after I just got you- _fuck!”_ At Lance’s cry Keith immediately looked over to him, worried about what he might have done this time. Apparently he had managed to spill some of the hot drink over his hand and was now frantically trying to lick it off without spilling even more. It was- well. Quite a sight to see.

Keith couldn’t help it: he threw his head back and laughed.

“Hey! Rude! This is your fault, you know!” Lance accused. His complaint was half-hearted though and he used Keith’s table to set his cup down. Keith waited until his laughter had faded out a little to grab Lance’s cup and slide it directly next to his own one.

“Aw, another drink for me? That’s very nice of-”

“Oh no, no, no, no, no, nu-uh, you’re _not_ stealing my drink,” Lance immediately said and lunged at him. For a second Keith contemplated holding it out of Lance’s reach but Lance had already proven that he had no concept of personal space whatsoever, meaning that he would probably try to climb all over him to get to the cup. And then he would probably manage to knock Keith’s chocolate over and they would have a huge mess to clean up. So instead of teasing Lance, Keith allowed him take his drink back and defensively cradle it to his chest.

“It’s _mine_ ,” Lance stated and jutted his chin out.

“Yeah, it’s probably better like this, you already drank out of it after all. I wouldn’t want to get any weird diseases.”

“Oh, back to preschool insults? I’ll let you know that I am perfectly clean and healthy, thank you very much,” Lance grumbled. Keith still felt a smile playing at his lips and finally took a sip out of his own cup. Lance was right, it was tasty. They drank at least half of their cups until Lance piped up again.

“So, where are you going after this? You told me that you were going to visit a friend in Spain but Spain is rather big.” Lance frowned. “Okay, not really, but you get what I’m trying to say.”

Keith smiled and swirled in his chocolate again. “We’ll be staying somewhere there at the Costa del Sol, though I’m not sure where exactly. Shiro is the one that has all the information.” He didn’t even know why he felt so comfortable telling Lance about his. Maybe because it didn’t matter, he didn't exactly seem like a creep and they would just split up and never see each other again. Maybe because Lance made him feel comfortable in general. Maybe because he was happy and felt like talking for once.

“Seriously? You’re staying at the Costa del Sol, too? Aná’s parents - uh, that’s my brother’s fiancée - have a hotel in Estepona! Dude, what if we run into each other?” Lance sounded excited at the prospect of meeting him again and Keith could feel his own heartbeat speeding up just slightly. That would be kind of awesome. He would have to remember that name and try to convince Shiro, Allura and Coran to make a trip there.

“Unlikely. The Costa del Sol is a little bigger than that.”

“Ugh, you’re a real killjoy, you know,” Lance sighed. Keith nudged him with his elbow.

“I wasn’t finished.”

“You weren’t?”

“Nope.” Keith grinned a little and took a sip of his now perfectly tempered drink. “It really is unlikely but you never know. We will be in the same general area, after all.”

Lance beamed and nodded. “True that! If you somehow end up in Estepona on Wednesday and see a huge wedding celebration, feel free to come by. If you can find me, you’ll even get free food,” Lance grinned, waggling his eyebrows. Keith laughed helplessly, this guy was ridiculous.

“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind.”  


“Cool. Now that that is out of the way, what are you reading? You seemed pretty invested in it earlier.”

Keith frowned and was about to deny it when he remembered his hyper fixation on the book to get his thoughts off Lance’s ass. Oh great. His cheeks were heating up again. Keith let a little of his hair fall in front of his face in an attempt to hide his soft blush and raised the book.

“It’s from the friend we’re meeting. Legends of Altea. It’s not bad, it includes lots of space and fighting. I wanted to give it back to her when we meet her but I’m not finished yet,” Keith explained. Lance hummed in acknowledgement, then let himself fall heavily back into his seat.

“Sounds awesome. I like space. I’m studying to be an astrophysicist, actually. I’ll let you get back to your book now though, otherwise you’ll never finish by the time we arrive.”

Keith wanted to protest and ask Lance more about his studies but refrained from it. Lance had pretty much terminated their conversation so he shouldn’t start it up again, right? Besides, they had still some hours left. This probably wouldn’t be the last time that they had spoken. And even if it was, Keith could always search for him on Wednesday in Estepona.

Smiling a little, Keith turned towards his book.

 

* * *

 

“Oh my- what- Keith!”

Keith raised his head, only to be met with a heavily disappointed Lance. He blinked and looked around a little but couldn’t find anything off. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? This is wrong!” Lance exclaimed and pointed at his computer. Keith’s eyes flickered over to it, taking in the dark screen.

“Did you turn it off?”

“No! That’s the problem! It just turned dark and now I can’t turn it on again!” Keith froze for a moment, then darted over into Lance’s personal space to try and turn the screen on. It didn’t react at all.

“Did you just break your computer thing?!”

“No! I don’t know! I didn’t do anything! I was just creating a playlist for you when this thing crashed!”

“Obviously you have to have done somethi- wait, what?” Keith was momentarily distracted by the thought of Lance creating a playlist for him. Why would he do that?

“Yeah, I was scrolling through the music albums they offered and there was that one album with five guys sporting mullets so I just had to-”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Keith cut him off. He didn’t want to hear another word about his hairstyle being a mullet. It was just… hair. Not a style or a fashion statement and definitely not a mullet. “We should call one of the flight staff over here and have them take a look at it.”

But before Keith could even get up, Lance had circled his wrist and tugged him back down again. “Don’t do that! I am broke, I can’t pay! What am I supposed to do if they want to charge me?”

“Well, you didn’t break it, did you?” Keith asked. Lance shot him a flat look.  


“No. But how are they supposed to know that?”

Keith sighed and pried Lance’s hand off. “Look. If they really wanted to charge you they would find out who you are, no matter whether we tell them now or not. You bought a ticket and sat in your assigned seat.” Lance’s face twisted up at that and Keith tried to give him a comforting pat to the shoulder. “Besides I doubt that it will matter. This happens all the time. They won’t charge you and the best that can happen is that they actually have a solution for it so that you won’t lose your entertainment source for the last two and half hours.”

Finally, Lance sighed and carded a hand through his hair. “Yeah, okay, whatever. I just hope that you’re right about that.”

“I usually am,” Keith smirked. Lance narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips but the light quip seemed to have calmed him down. Once again Keith gave him an awkward pat on the shoulder, then he rose to his feet in his quest to search for a stewardess.

Heaven. Standing was heaven.

Similar to what Lance had done earlier, Keith stretched a little before starting to walk. He knew that there was a button over their heads that they could use to call someone to their seats but he had seen a perfect opportunity to _move_ again and took it. It wasn’t long until he had found a stewardess and had explained the issue making her follow him down the aisles towards seat 36A.

Lance was sitting there, looking more bored than anything else. Keith knew that he was still nervous though, Lance wasn't the kind of guy to let go of his worries that easily.

“That's the one,” he said simply and pointed at Lance’s screen. The woman gave Lance a smile - which Lance willingly returned, Keith noted - before trying to turn the screen on. Nothing. She tried a few more times, then straightened herself out again and addressed Lance.

“I am sorry, sir, there is nothing we can do about that at the moment. If you wish we can try to find an empty seat with a working-”

“Nope! It’s totally fine, seriously. I’ll make do somehow. It’s cool,” Lance interrupted, sounding relieved. The stewardess just smiled, nodded and left again. Meanwhile Keith tried to tell himself that he was only this happy that Lance wanted to stay because he was a distraction from the long flight hours and not because he kind of wanted to get to know him more. As… friends. He wanted to become friends with Lance.

Shit. He really had to get it together. Lance was just a stranger he met on the plane. Absolutely nothing else.

Then again, Lance had suggested that they could meet again. Maybe they could actually become friends?

“Aww, man. What am I supposed to do now? I don’t suppose you have another book that you could lend me for a bit?” Lance asked, sounding almost hopeful. Keith frowned a little, then remembered that Lance had used the games not only as a distraction from his boredom but also from his fears about flying. Not thinking twice about it, Keith put his book away and shrugged.

“No. But I don’t mind keeping you company.”

Lance lit up at that. His smile was so brilliant that Keith almost feared he would go blind.

“Seriously?! Thanks, dude! That’s, what, the third time you saved me already?” Keith snorted.

“Seems like it. Your debt keeps growing, I hope you have thought of enough stuff to pay me back with already.”

Laughing, Lance kicked his shoes off to draw his legs onto his seat. “That’s easier said than done. Does the hot chocolate count as something?”

Keith pretended to think for a little, then smirked at him. “Maybe?”

“Aww, come _on_ , what else can I do?”

“Alright, I’ll let it count,” Keith allowed generously. “You’ll have to save me some ice cream at your brother’s wedding though.”

It was only after he had said these words that the implications hit him. He had just admitted that he would actually seek Lance out after this.

Whipping his head around, Keith tried to do damage control. “That’s, um, I mean- if I even-” Lance’s overjoyed expression shut him up before he could finish his sentence.

“Anything! I’m pretty sure there will be at least twenty different flavors, which one is your favorite?”

“I don’t- I’ve never had anything other than chocolate and vanilla?” Keith said uncertainly. Lance sat up straighter at that and put his legs back down on the floor.

“You _what_?”

“I’ve never had any ice cream flavors apart from chocolate or vanilla. That’s pretty much all the stores offer anyway.” Lance looked so genuinely shocked that Keith felt as if he had done something wrong. Which he hadn’t. It wasn’t his fault that there had never been an opportunity to try fancy ice cream flavors.

“Dude. _Dude_. Not even strawberry?” Lance probed. Keith shook his head slowly, watching as Lance’s expression morphed from genuine shock into determination. “Alright, I have a new mission now. I’m telling Chris to get as many ice cream flavors as humanly possible and you’ll have to try every single one of them. Dude. Are you serious? Not even strawberry?!”

“Shut up,” Keith said half-heartedly. “And I’m not sure I can eat that much.”

Lance was having none of that. He twisted his body around to face Keith as much as possible and waved his hands in front of his face. Keith went a little cross-eyed in his attempt to follow the movements. “Oh no. You will eat them. All of them. Just don’t eat breakfast or something, I don’t care. I’ll make you eat ice cream until you get sick.”

Keith scrunched his nose up. “That wasn’t what I had in mind when I was asking for something to pay me back with, you know.”

“I don’t care! I can’t believe you’ve never had any ice cream apart from chocolate and vanilla! That’s just- not right! Is there anything else I need to know about you? Are you perhaps a serial killer in disguise? A famous indie rock band singer?”

“I most definitely am not.”

“What? A serial killer or an indie rock band vocalist?”

“ _Both_.” Keith shook his head, he couldn’t believe that he actually wanted to be friends with this guy. Lance was absolutely ridiculous.

“But you still haven’t tried any ice cream apart from chocolate and vanilla. That’s a crime right on par with the others. You’re lucky you have me, you know. Imagine you would have to live your entire life without ever getting the chance to try mango or mint.”

“Terrific,” Keith mumbled to himself. Lance somehow managed to catch it though and nodded heavily.

“It is. And just to make sure that you’re not guilty of any other crimes we’ll have to play twenty questions now,” Lance stated. Keith watched him trying to wrestle himself into a cross-legged position, but the armrests were in the way so he settled for sitting down onto his left leg and kept the right one propped up, leaning against it. It looked adorable as hell.

After Keith didn’t say anything for longer than socially acceptable, Lance frowned at him. “So? You game?”

“Uh, sure. Why not.” Keith forced his mind away from the way Lance’s hair was mussed up where it had been pressed against the back rest and took his own shoes off.  “Who starts?”

“Me! How old are you?” Lance grinned and the twinkle in his eyes made Keith helplessly grin back.

“Really? That’s what you’re going with?”

“Is that _your_ first question?”

“Was that your second one?”

They exchanged a look and laughed before Lance leaned back and stretched his arms out. “No, but seriously, how old are you?”

“I’m twenty-two. My question then: how about you?”

“Really? First you mock me and then you ask the same question?” Keith shot Lance a flat look that made him crack up. “Alright, alright, I got it. No mocking your twisted sense of logic. I'm twenty-three, so clearly it's my win!” Keith rolled his eyes but couldn’t suppress his smile. Of course Lance would make a competition out of this.

“Not for long. My birthday is in four months.”

“That’s still five months younger than I am,” Lance grinned smugly. Keith playfully flipped him off and drew his legs up into a position that mimicked Lance’s. Even that small change in position felt good after staying still for almost five hours now. Almost as good as walking.

“Next question.”

“Alright, let’s see… are you in college?”

“Yeah,” Keith sighed. “Undeclared major. I don’t know.”

Lance seemed to have sensed that college wasn’t exactly a light topic for Keith, if his change in tone was any indication. “You don’t know what?” The look on his face told Keith that he could ignore the question and he wouldn’t be judged for it but he honestly didn’t mind telling him. It wasn’t as if he had ever made a secret about his thoughts to anyone. It was just that he was unhappy about his situation in general, so talking about it didn't put him in the best mood.

“I’m in college, I’m almost twenty-three and I’m still undeclared. I don’t know what I want to do. There are so many options, it’s driving me insane.” He paused a little, then shifted his legs so that he had enough space to cross his arms. “Like, at this point I’m honestly not even sure whether I want to stay in college? My grades are good and I’m there on a scholarship but I’m pretty sure that I’ll lose it this semester. You know, because I’m still undeclared. I just - I don’t know.”

Lance hummed and Keith glanced over at him. Much to his relief Lance didn’t seem even the slightest bit put off by him contemplating to drop out of college, he just seemed deep in thought.

“Do you like it?” he asked finally.

“Do I like what?” Keith retorted, caught a little off guard. Lance shot him a flat look.

“College. Do you like being in college?”

Keith furrowed his brows. “I… guess? I don’t know. It can be kind of hard sometimes. There are classes that I’m actually interested in but most of them just aren't what I enjoy doing. And my friends don't go there, so I can't exactly get help studying for them.” He didn’t elaborate that his friends didn’t go there because he didn’t really  _have_ any. Besides Shiro, that is. “Those classes are draining me.”

“Then which classes do you like?” Lance asked. He was still weirdly serious and it was starting to disturb Keith.

“Physics, mainly. I really enjoy being able to… explain stuff that’s happening around us. I-” For a second Keith contemplated leaving it at that but then he sighed and pushed through. “I actually thought about majoring in astrophysics. Like you do? But I’m not sure whether it would really be the right thing to do. I hate this, overthinking isn’t like me.”

All of a sudden Lance relaxed and let out a laugh. “Then don’t do it. Overthinking, I mean. You kinda implied that you would be able to keep the scholarship if you declared your major next semester, right?”

Keith nodded.

“Then just do it! I mean, what do you have to loose? Another year of your life? You’re twenty-two, think about it, you’re still young. That’s nothing. Our average life expectancy is around eighty years, you still barely made it through the first quarter of your life. If astrophysics doesn’t suit you, you can still change majors or drop out afterward. Who do you have to disappoint? It’s your life, you know.”

For a moment, Keith could just stare at Lance. He wasn’t sure what kind of reaction he had expected but it hadn’t been this. When he had told Shiro about his problem, Shiro had sat down with him and searched for practical solutions. Which classes did he have fun in? Which would he really rather not take? Some classes drained him, but did they really drain him enough to drop out? He didn’t want to make a mistake and declare a major that wouldn’t fit him in fear of losing any and all motivation, so would it be worth the effort to stay undeclared, take the classes he liked and work at the same time to keep his debts to a minimum? What kinds of jobs would be good enough to replace his scholarship?

And now in came Lance with nothing but a few philosophical words that suddenly changed Keith’s entire outlook on the situation.

“I - um.”

Lance flashed him a bright grin and raised an eyebrow. “No need to thank me. I know, I give some pretty awesome advice - just one of my many talents. Don’t sweat it.”

Keith thought that he should probably be irritated by Lance’s behavior and yes, there was a tiny voice in his head that wanted nothing but to shut him up, but mainly he was just amazed at the new insight he had gained. Both into his approach to college and Lance.

“No. Thank you, seriously,” Keith said fiercely. Both he and Lance seemed a little shocked at the intensity of his words and he quickly turned his head away. He had made this weird, hadn’t he?

But then Lance laughed again and Keith turned back towards him. “You’re weird but I like you, mullet man,” Lance grinned as he gave him a playful shove. At a loss of words, Keith just shoved him back. Lance was so… easy. Open. Free. How was Lance so open? And why did Keith feel so at ease with it?

“Alright, this question got kind of out of hand. Your turn,” Lance said then. Put on the spot, Keith couldn’t come up with anything.

“Uh, you’re alone?” Keith blurted out the first question he could think of. Lance’s confused expression and then downright lewd smirk made him want to die. “ _No!_ I didn't mean it like that! I meant- you’re here to go to your brother’s wedding, right? You’re alone on the plane? Without the rest of your family?”

Lance's smug expression made way for an honest smile and he nodded. “Yep. I’m pretty sure that they are in Spain already. I’m on a scholarship in the US but I’m actually from Cuba and that’s where the rest of my family lives. Apart from Chris, he got accepted into a university in Spain, and that’s where he met Aná.”

“From Cuba?”

“Yeah. My dad is from the US though, he met mom when he and his friends from college visited Varadero beach sometime during a summer break. It’s a cute story but no one can tell it better than mom can so I’m afraid you’ll have to ask her about it on Wednesday if you want to hear more.” Lance grinned and Keith could feel his cheeks heating up in response.

“I guess I have no choice but to come then,” Keith replied. Lance wanted him there. _Lance really, honestly wanted him there._

“I guess not. Between the promise of a good romance story, ice cream and my amazing self it would be impossible to stay away,” Lance joked. Keith felt laughter bubbling up in his chest as he turned his head away from Lance. He was just too much for him.

“Okay, my turn again! I actually wanted to save this question for last but at the speed we’re going we will have already reached the airport by then. So I’ll have to ask now. What do you think of me?”

The laughter abruptly caught in Keith’s throat and he started coughing instead. His thoughts were racing, how was he supposed to answer this? What was he supposed to say?! What was Lance trying to achieve by asking this? When Keith raised his head to look at him, Lance had an almost incredulous expression on his face.

“So. I really hope that that wasn't your answer to my question,” Lance said, his eyebrows raised to a steep angle.

And just like that most of Keith’s worries disappeared again.

“I don’t know, maybe it was,” Keith teased. Lance narrowed his eyes at him.

“No, nope, I refuse to accept that answer. Out with it, _Keith_. I need your thoughts. It’s important.”

“Important for what?” Keith asked suspiciously.

“Important to know whether I have a chance with you,” Lance answered smoothly.

Keith gaped.

Lance grinned half-heartedly.

Keith gaped some more.

“Um… Keith?” Lance finally asked and waved a hand in front of his face. “Did I break you? I could have sworn you were totally checking me out earlier when I got us the hot chocolate. But I can’t be sure unless you give me _some_ kind of feedback, you know.”

Keith made a tiny, broken noise and whipped his head around in an attempt to hide his blush. His eyes met those of the woman in seat 36C and she grinned at him. Feeling more mortified by the second, Keith snapped his head back to the front, observing the tiny airplane on his screen while he covered the lower half of his face with a hand.

“Keith?!”

“You can’t just ask stuff like that!” he said, his voice cracking. Oh great, more to add to his list of ever growing embarrassment.

“So is that a yes?” Lance asked. Keith felt him poking his shoulder and he risked a glance to the side, seeing Lance with bright eyes and an amused expression, waiting for his answer. Keith groaned and let his head fall forward a little.

“Yes. Yes, okay? I-” He wasn’t even sure what he was trying to say. “Yeah,” he finished weakly.

Lance laughed and suddenly there was an arm around Keith’s shoulders, drawing him towards Lance. “See? That wasn’t so bad, was it? And now we’re both on the same page.”

“Fuck off. Not everyone is a natural flirt like you,” Keith grumbled but didn’t immediately push Lance’s arm away. He half-turned his head to look over his shoulder at the woman in 36C - she was intently focused on her computer. Her badly hidden grin said it all though. Oh god, this was the worst.

Not being able to take the embarrassment anymore, Keith finally shook Lance’s arm off to settle back into his own seat. Lance didn’t seem bothered by it, he simply twisted more towards him and started talking again.

“Awesome. Are you able to think of the next question or do I have to cover for you?”

“This is _your fault-”_

And then the lights went out. All of a sudden Lance tensed beside him, his face growing panicked. Keith immediately reached over to grab his arm.

“Lance. It’s fine. This is normal, it’s night, they turn the lights off so that people can sleep,” Keith said in a low volume. Lance let out a shuddery breath and relaxed in his hold.

“Oh my god. Okay. Fine. Couldn’t they just announce that or something? I swear I just got a heart attack,” he complained. Keith clapped a hand over his mouth and frowned at him.

“Quiet. It’s nighttime.” Lance seemed unimpressed at his words but nodded anyway. Keith let his hands get pried away.

“Okay, so, quiet. No talking. What are we supposed to do then? The light isn’t even good enough to read stuff,” Lance whispered.

“You wouldn’t have anything to read either way,” Keith pointed out. It got him a childish grimace and he grinned. “Doesn’t matter though. Wanna watch a movie?”

“I’m not sure whether it escaped your notice but-” Lance made a hand movement towards his screen. Keith rolled his eyes and pointed at his own.

“We can watch here. There are subtitles so you don’t have to have headphones.”

“Movies without any noise are boring though!”

“It’s not like we can share them!” Keith hissed and held his headphones up to prove his point. They were black and resembled a cheap headset, just without the microphone.

Lance pouted and squinted at the headphones. “And we can’t just attach two headphones to your computer thingie?”

“Do you see two openings?” Keith shot back, tapping against his right armrest. Lance scowled and crossed his arms.

“Okay! Fine! I’ll go without headphones, it’s whatever. I’ll put the middle armrest up though, it keeps digging into my side and it hurts.”  


“Do whatever you want,” Keith sighed. It didn’t matter anyway, he had known that Lance would be all up in his personal space the moment he suggested that they could watch a movie together. While Lance busied himself with their shared armrest, Keith chose one of the movies that had both English subtitles and an interesting summary.

They were barely five minutes into the movie when Lance suddenly completely pressed up against him. Their cheeks were squashed together and Lance’s arm was around his back to keep himself in place.

“What the fuck?!” Keith exclaimed, probably a little louder than acceptable.

“Shhh! Quiet! I think I can hear what they’re saying when I’m like this,” Lance whispered. His breath caressed Keith’s jaw and he suppressed a shudder. This was - they were _close_. Way closer than normal. They were practically glued together!

It wasn’t unpleasant though. Keith pursed his lips and tried to focus on the movie, ignoring the warm weight of Lance all over him.

 

* * *

 

At some point in the movie, Lance’s grip around his back loosened. So did the way he pressed their heads together and he started slipping down a little. When Keith turned towards him to ask him what the matter was, he saw that Lance had fallen asleep.

A foreign, warm feeling spread through his stomach. Lance was totally relaxed and at ease, his breath came in short and even puffs. Careful not to wake him up, Keith changed their positions a little - he pulled Lance’s arm out from behind him and slowly turned his shoulder to make sure he wouldn’t completely slip off. He would have also gotten him a blanket but he wasn't able to move that much without jostling and potentially waking Lance, so he would have to make do without.

Suddenly, Keith got the weird urge to touch Lance’s hair. And so he did, Lance wasn’t awake to stop him after all. It was soft, smooth and warm from being short enough to stick close to Lance’s head. He loved the feeling of it between his fingers.

Maybe a little too much even.

At that thought he suddenly became aware of what he was doing. Lance was still pretty much a stranger, this wasn’t how he should act towards him. It was weird. Creepy even. He pulled his hand back but not before making sure that none of Lance’s hairs were sticking up weirdly.

 

* * *

 

“Lance? Hey, Lance. Wake up,” Keith murmured softly while moving his shoulder a little. Lance groaned but lifted his head.

“Wha? Where ’m I - _Keith?!”_

Keith grinned at the way Lance suddenly scrambled to sit upright. “Slept well?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m - I’m good, thank you, I - I didn’t drool, did I?” Lance reached up to his mouth and seemed relieved when he didn’t find any wetness there.

“You’re fine. We’re almost there, look at the window,” Keith said. Lance’s eyes stared at his finger for a while, obviously not quite there yet, then he quickly turned around to get a look at the window. And gasped.

It was beautiful. It was nighttime and the sky was clear so they had a perfect view on the lights of the cities beneath them. When Lance slid closer towards the window, Keith followed suit without hesitation, looking over his shoulder as to not miss the view.

“Woah. In all the times I flew over to Cuba I have never arrived at night,” Lance whispered. Keith smiled softly.

“It’s pretty, I know.” Both of them stayed pressed up against each other, looking out of the window until there was a noise and the seatbelt signs over their heads got turned on. Keith sighed and sat back, putting the armrest between them down to where it belonged. There was a stewardess walking around, collecting everyones used headphones and blankets and checking that they had fastened their seatbelts correctly.

It was almost over now. No more Lance.

Except not really. He would find him on Wednesday, this was anything but over.

“Sir? Please store your hand luggage under the seat in front of you for the duration of our landing.”

Keith blinked up at the stewardess, then followed her gaze towards Lance, who had started going through his backpack. His backpack? All this time he hadn’t touched it even once, why would he take it out now?

“One moment!” Lance said breathlessly. His arm disappeared even deeper into the bag and Keith eyed him curiously.

“Sir-”

“Ah, here we go!” Lance pulled out a pen and smiled brightly, then closed the backpack and shoved it back under the seat where it had been before. “All good now!”

The stewardess obviously wasn’t quite happy with him but left it at that. Keith personally couldn’t care less, he just wanted to know what Lance wanted with a pen.

“What’s that fo-”

“Gimme your hand,” Lance ordered, extending his arm and wiggling his fingers at Keith. Keith frowned but complied, placing his left hand into Lance’s. He was rewarded with another bright grin, then Lance started writing something onto his wrist.

“What are you doing?!”

“Giving you my phone number. I can’t have you accidentally missing out on the wedding, can I?”

Keith’s heart gave an excited little jump and he impatiently waited for Lance to finish writing before pulling his arm back. Lance’s handwriting was surprisingly neat and round, Keith could make the numbers out without any effort. Just when Lance was about to put his pen back - apparently completely forgetting about his encounter with the stewardess already - Keith snatched it from his fingers.

“What-?!”

“Your turn,” Keith declared. For a moment Lance just stared quizzically at him, then he lit up and eagerly held his arm out. Keith smiled slightly as he began writing.

There was a sudden drop and Lance flinched hard. Keith was just barely able to lift the pen in time to avoid impaling him arm but the number was ruined either way. Frowning, he looked over at Lance. “You have to-”

Ah.

Lance’s expression was uncomfortable again and Keith saw the tense set of his shoulders. His left hand was gripping the armrest for dear life and his shoeless feet were firmly planted onto the floor, his entire posture just screaming ‘make it stop’.

Sighing, he held his arm a little tighter. “Just try not to move too much.” Lance gave a terse nod and Keith resumed writing out his number in big, childish digits so that wobbly lines wouldn’t matter. Once he had finished, he simply turned Lance’s arm a little and entwined their fingers. Glancing over at him, Keith saw that the uncomfortable expression had momentarily disappeared to make way for surprise.

“Thanks,” Lance said finally. Keith smiled at him and shrugged, squeezing his hand a little.

“You look ready to throw up.”  


“This again? Really?!” Lance sounded scandalized and Keith grinned at him.

“I’ll stop mentioning it when you stop looking like that,” he told him. Lance huffed but his shoulders relaxed a little. Before Keith could say anything else, the pilot made his landing announcement. In an effort to keep distracting Lance somehow, Keith nudged him towards the window.

“Look, we’re super close now. The cars are as big as hands already.”

“Huh, you’re right. Wait, where the fuck is the airport? We can’t land on the street.” Keith laughed and shook his head.

“In front of us, duh. We’ll probably see it soon enough. It’s dark, so it’s harder to make out.”

“Probably? Harder to make out? Very reassuring,” Lance said drily. The sight of the ground being so close had apparently calmed him enough to lean back into his seat.

“I’ve never been here before, you can hardly fault me for that.”

“Excuses for someone that didn’t do their research.”

“You didn’t do your research either!” Keith complained. Lance sent him a smirk.

“Yeah, but I’m not the one attempting to play hero.”

“I’m not - you’re an ass,” Keith stated, tugging his hand back towards himself to cross his arms. Lance didn’t seem to mind, he was grinning, even - and then they touched down.

The plane shook and Lance gripped both armrests with a squeak. Keith laughed openly and leaned his head back.

“Look who’s being an ass now!”

“You’re ridiculous. We’re on the ground already,” Keith pointed out. Lance frowned and stuck out his tongue.

“But we’re still in the flying metal monster, give me break.” Keith’s expression softened and he poked at Lance’s right hand until he let go of the armrest and took Keith’s hand again. They didn’t speak until the plane had stopped rolling, they had put on their shoes and the majority of the people around them had gotten up.

This was it. They had reached the airport. Normally Keith would already be up and stretching by now, anything to get out of the cramped seats.

Not this time though.

Keith looked at their hands and felt his forehead crease up.

“Alright then, time to get going,” Lance said lightly. He didn’t move though. Neither of them did.

“You’re frowning pretty hard,” Lance remarked after a moment of silence. Keith looked up at him, then down at their hands again before tugging his away.

“Aww, you’re gonna miss me that much?”

“You’re annoying,” Keith grumbled half-heartedly as he reached for his backpack. The people around him had started moving towards the exit already, Lance was right, it was time to get going too. He didn’t want to leave Shiro waiting.

“Excuse you? I’m brilliant. Remember how I beat you at connect four? And I knew that you were interested in me? I’ve got you all figured out already. Don’t worry tough, despite you being rude I’m a generous person so I’ll send you plenty of messages to show you bits and pieces of my amazing life.”

Keith laughed and finally got up, having no excuse to linger any longer. “Is that a threat?”

“It’s a promise.”

His breath stuttered a little and he quickly turned away to hide his blush from Lance. They could become friends. Lance wanted to be friends. More, even.

“Alright,” he said evenly, trying to ignore his pounding heart, “bye Lance. See you on Wednesday, I suppose.”

“Try not to miss me too much, mullet man!”

Keith shot him one last mock glare over his shoulder, then he left. It was okay though - they would see each other again on Wednesday, this journey wasn't over.

Smiling softly, Keith lightly traced the numbers on his left wrist. Yeah, he hadn’t quite reached his final destination yet.

 

**Author's Note:**

> GUYS TAKE A LOOK AT THIS COMMENT [THIS COMMENT](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9067078/comments/101716492) TO FIND OUT WHAT THE WOMAN IN 36C DID THE ENTIRE TIME IT'S ABSOLUTELY PERFECT 10/10 INCREDIBLE
> 
> *clears throat* ok I'm alright now. Moving on... it's been around 4 years that I've last been on a plane but I used to go there pretty regularly so let me quickly clear some stuff up:
> 
> 1\. boredom is your worst enemy  
> 2\. falling asleep is really hard in these cramped seats  
> 3\. the computer with the movies/games is the best thing that has ever happened to mankind  
> 4\. it sucks when it suddenly dies  
> 5\. or when it didn't get reset at the start of the flight so your games are INSANELY HARD  
> 6\. I am permanently traumatized by that one chicken thing I've eaten on that one flight (sorry for taking it all out on you Lance)  
> 7\. the food isn't always horrible. I actually had Mac and Cheese once ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ  
> 8\. there is free hot chocolate/cup noodles in the back in certain flights!!! that's a pro tip from me to you, check it out  
> 9\. the headset earphones suck. no real reason, you just can't share them.
> 
> come talk to me on [tumblr](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/)! :D


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